For the next 18 years, the Federal Reserve loosely followed a de facto price rule by targeting commodity prices including the price of gold and the foreign exchange value of the dollar.

FORBES: How to Stop the Spike In the Price of Gasoline

In another recent paper Marina Azzimonti of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, Eva de Francisco of Towson University and Vincenzo Quadrini of the University of Southern California argue that income inequality may have had a troubling effect in this area of finance, too.

ECONOMIST: Free exchange

Regarding calls that President Obama should open the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to help placate high gasoline prices, de Margerie says that with Saudi Arabia still capable of replacing the 1 million barrels per day of Libyan oil there is no defensible argument to open the SPR.

FORBES: Total's De Margerie Keynotes CERA Conference, Sees No Oil Supply Concerns From Mideast Strife

In Rio de Janeiro a populist governor brought in a law obliging the main state university to reserve 40% of its places for blacks and half for graduates of state high schools (which, unlike state universities, are for common folk).

ECONOMIST: Race in Brazil